When to emphasize MAS

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One of the characteristics of the Spanish language is the graphic accent or tilde, the orthographic sign in the shape of a small curved line to the right (´) that is placed on some vowels, following the orthographic criteria indicated by the rules of accentuation of the Spanish.

The accent is key to writing correctly in Spanish, since, on many occasions, it allows us to differentiate the meaning of two words that are written the same but are pronounced and mean different things (for example, jump - jump or he - he, among many others). This is the case of more more, words that we are going to study in this lesson from a TEACHER, in order to know when is the accent on MAS.

Index

1. The word MAS, without an accent
2. The word MÁS, with an accent
3. When is it accentuated MORE

In Spanish we have the word "more" written without an accent. This term is a conjunction of the adversative type, equivalent to other more common in the oral language, such as, for example, "but" or "but":

We are in June but this morning it was quite cold.

The adversative conjunction "more" it is used very little and its scope of employment is reduced to formal language and, above all, written. A reliable test to know that we are facing an adversative conjunction and that, therefore, we should not accentuate, is to substitute "more" for other more prototypical adversative conjunctions, such as "but", so that the previous example would be as follows shape:

We are in June but this morning it was quite cold.

If, as we see, they coincide and they are perfectly interchangeable, it is clear that "more" works as an adversative conjunction that joins two sentences and, for this reason, we should never stress.

In front of the adversative conjunction "mas", in Spanish there is also the word "more", written with a graphic accent or diacritical accent (´). In this case, the value of the tilde It's fundamental because it allows us to differentiate the meaning of two different words at a semantic level but equal at a graphic level.

Thus, "more" with a diacritical mark can be, on the one hand, a comparative adverb of superiority (She is undoubtedly prettier than me; The math test is more complex than the geography test) or it can also be a neuter comparative pronoun, as indicated by the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (DRAE) through the following examples: "Doing is more than saying; No one is more than anyone". It is also necessary to point out that the word "more" is, in turn, the noun used to designate the mathematical sign of addition "+" (Two plus two equals four).

On the other hand, we also find some adverbial phrases that contain the word "more" with graphic accent, such as the following: more, more, more, rather, more or less, sooner or later, more and more, no more, no less, no more and no more Y its pluses and minuses, among many.

As a summary of everything stated earlier in this lesson, we can say that the word "more" should be written without a diacritical mark as long as it is an adversative conjunction, comparable to others of the same type, such as the case of "but".

However, the word "more" is accentuated in all those contexts in which it has an adverbial function, whether it is part of a comparative construction of superiority, the name of the mathematical sign or a comparative pronoun.

The origin of the graphic accentuation of "more" lies in the precept indicated by the Spelling of the Spanish language with respect to the graphic accentuation of monosyllables, which, as a general rule, should not be accented, but which, nevertheless, in this case they do in the cases where that corresponds to the objective of distinguishing between unstressed words ("more" would be a stressed word) and unstressed words (as would be the case of "more" without accentuation graph).

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